[PRP] Artifacts 101 (Lucky, Gale, Rep, Mark, Carl)

[Baneful]

HALLOWEEN - DEUS - REP

Rep was distressed in Halloween, aware of the fear sapping nature of the place, to him it was like walking into a nuclear reactor and he didn't want to be there any longer than he needed to be.

"Later." he said in a dazed way as she pushed him through the portal and ended up mysteriously back on Deus.

He had to wonder, as he looked up at the familiar cliffs, if he actually was back in Deus or not, but Tracey said he was no longer being sapped and that for the most part things seemed normal.

He was suspicious of the whole thing, but at least he seemed to be safe for now.  

[Zoobey]

DEUS - REP

For a moment it felt strange like the green was still following him, curling under his feet -

- But the moment passed quickly, and front his vantage point outlining the snug coastline of the beach to the lighthouse, Rep could make out two figures walking away from the lighthouse. One of them was of course, holding an extension who was bodily being dragged in the sand and looked at this point like they were some sort of Creation-monster themselves, and the other looked a lot like Mark.

If Rep neared closer to them he could hear Mark yelling something about placebos to Lucky.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

DEUS - REP

Rep broke into a jog the moment he heard Mark yelling, charging along the beach to the lighthouse.

"Where's Carl?" he snapped, before registering the person being dragged. "What the ******** happened?"

 

[Zoobey]

DEUS

"Oh, he's dea -passed out," Mark suddenly changed halfway through the topic. He just stared at Lucky and gestured for the other to drop the cargo, briefly and casually sliding over to brush most of the larger pieces of foliage out of Carl's hair and coat with his shoe. "Good news, the path from the base to the portal was really smooth."

Rep really did not need to know what that meant.

Molten Tigrex

Baneful

 

[kuropeco]

ARCTIC BASE - GALE


He hadn't been paying attention to what was behind him.

"No - "

The shout was cut off, broken away as the pod slammed shut. The vines were there, covering his vision, the nausea rising in his throat and then shifting away until all he could think or see or feel were the vines and the faint, dissipating glass of the pod window and the leaves and everything was green -

zoobey

 

[Molten Tigrex]

"One, never do that again. Two, you gave me a placebo?" Lucky was yelling back at Mark as Rep got closer.

"NOTHING!" Lucky called out. Carl was quickly dropped at Mark's gesture, and Lucky let him deal with making Carl presentable. He leaned down and surreptitiously took Carl's pulse. Oh, good. Still alive. "He's -he's fine, I think. He just - he passed out when we were trying to leave, I'm not sure why. Might have been this?"

Lucky casually held up the jar and its ominous-looking contents. Even in the full light of a tropical island, the sphere was blacker than black.

"So, where's Gale and - uh - what was the other guy's name again?" Lucky asked Rep, and the looked to Mark. "And uh... what should I do with the jar?"

zoobey

baneful

 

[Zoobey]

ARCTIC BASE - GALE

There was still the sense of urgency, the sense that Gale had left something behind but his mind was content to stay. As it did, his consciousness began to scatter and fade until all he could see was himself drifting away, falling apart-

- Being replaced. Instead there was him, and there was a child, a little boy, who beckoned to him, and told him he could stay here forever.

A voice told him to fight, and it might have been a weapon but it sounded too, too far away.

kuropeco

Go ahead and rp out the memory snippets!

 

[Baneful]

Rep's first priority, as always was Carl and he moved over to heft the kid up in his arms, examining him for injuries. He was mercifully still alive but scuffed up and dirty. Also unconscious, he moved him away from the jar protectively.

"What the ******** did you do to him? Did you ******** drag him all the way here?" He didn't put Carl back down, holding him princess style in his arms like he was a very expensive and fancy cat someone had pawed at with stained fingers.

"That ******** jar looks like bad news." he said. "You know what black is right? In the whole, legacy ******** scheme of things."

 

[Zoobey]

LIGHTHOUSE

"Nope," said Mark almost immediately upon the sight of the jar, "I'd rather not get literal years shaved off my already short, very gifted career so like, if you'd just oh, I dunno, place it on top of the office desk when we get there and I'll get a freaking radioactive kit for it that'll be great. Good news is that's definitely not a legacy." Unless Mark could also suddenly see every legacy aura ever, he probably somehow already knew what it was ahead of time.

He kindly ignored Lucky's mention of the placebo, maybe it was best not to elaborate. Lucky looked okay and that was all that mattered. "Gale and Sam are probably still in the Arctic, you two head back first, I'll follow up. Gotta make sure they're okay." Did he actually sound guilty?

The Death Assistant was also doing a great job of not looking at Carl before turning to Rep. "Err, you should probably have him looked at too. Did you get anything from there?"

Baneful

Molten Tigrex

YOU ARE FREE TIG FREE

 

[kuropeco]

ARCTIC BASE - GALE


He saw the child as though through a cloud, the memories swirling, twisting. The child disappeared, replaced instead by a young girl with golden hair, running after him as he skipped across the grass, dancing in the puddles underneath their bare feet.

A flash of red hair, there and gone.

A pod opening, steam billowing, and the sound of footsteps.

An angry glare, eyes intense and hateful behind the glasses that were on the end of a narrow nose, the swing of a fist towards him, the explosion of pain, a dark green smeared across his vision.

Eyes, so intensely, achingly familiar, soft and gentle in their love. A hand with work roughened fingers sliding into his, fingers tangling together. Promises that would be made that were hard to keep, melting into the thought of a rosy pink, and then whispered words, curling inside of his chest.

The beat of a heart, alongside of his own, until it stopped.

The smell of cigarettes, the taste of strawberries, the scent of vanilla and cinnamon.

And then just himself, and a voice, far away, distant, unreachable.

zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

ARCTIC BASE - GALE

-"-ale, Gale, GALE," Something firmly slapped him on the side of the head, and then there was a mumble, "Sorry. Look, I'll make it up to you later, we have to go now."

Even then, it was only with bare coherence that Gale could make out Samuel half-supporting him on one arm, the former's leg covered in blood. He was hobbling-

- As behind them shambled several of the human lookalikes, some of them missing pieces still stumbling forwards. They bled blood and even had nearly perfect insides, though their brains, whatever parts that were exposed were made entirely out of vines.

kuropeco

 

[Baneful]

LIGHTHOUSE

Rep moved away from the jar a little further with Carl at Mark's comments.

"I got Circe." he said. "And some old book the invisible girl asked me to get." He did not readily hand over either.

 

[Zoobey]

LIGHTHOUSE

"What invisible girl?" Mark did not really know much about Alice and was just confused. "Why does his weapon want a book? Why did Charlotte give us a jar of death?" It seemed the Death assistant didn't readily want either of the items either as he didn't quite enjoy being the magnet of everything terrible.

It was around this point that Carl stirred, made a face, and got up. When it turned out his glasses were missing, which wasn't the biggest deal since there were about twenty backup copies in his actual room, and then turned very slowly to look at Lucky, nursing his head that still had about ten branches and a leaf with a complete rather exotic caterpillar sticking out on it. "What- why?"

It wasn't too clear if he was convinced whether or not Lucky had been the one to knock him out, but he sure knew he was going to remember this.

"Hang on," Mark checked his phone, "Getting a ping from Sam. You guys play nice, don't lose anything, don't give anything away, no touching." He was already jogging back into the lighthouse, and there was light swearing that consisted mostly of dangs and freakings.

Using Rep as a tether, Carl shakily got onto his feet. The caterpillar was still very steadily eating one of the leaves sticking out of his hair. "Is-is everyone okay?" He looked around in concern. "Where's..." This part, he trailed off because he didn't remember Gale or Samuel's name.

Baneful

Molten Tigrex

Carl will remember this

 

[Molten Tigrex]

Lucky immediately held the jar as far away from himself as he could, so as not to irradiate away any more of his own short lifespan than necessary. "Oh, oh really, someone could have mentioned that any time in the last half hour."

"That's... that's great," Lucky hesitantly congratulated Rep, who did not look like he wanted to be congratulated. And not just because Carl came back looking like he may have been dragged through the jungle. Nobody was looking very happy about any of their finds - which was strange considering how well the mission had gone. "Mission accomplished? Maybe we can finally, uh, you know, get him back to - to normal...ish...?"

"Wait - Sam?" He nearly dropped the jar. Mark had been weird all day, and was just getting weirder. "What do you mean, Sam? And - and how do you know what's in the jar? Don't just - don't leave -"

But Mark was already halfway to the lighthouse. Lucky sighed and gave up. For now.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Lucky counter-asked in a quick jumble of words, visibly startled that Carl was both conscious and talking to him. Lucky was a bad person to ask these kind of questions to. He wasn't exactly the most reassuring person around. They could still hear Mark's half-swearing from this far out, which didn't bode well. He looked at Rep briefly as if he needed some kind of unspoken permission to respond. "I - I hope so."

baneful

zoobey

(?) CARL WILL REMEMBER THAT COUNTER: 2

 

[Baneful]

LIGHTHOUSE

"It wasn't Circe." he said, but before he could explain Mark was storming off and he let the explanation die while still on his lips. Never mind.

"Sam's the guy who was with us on the mission. Samuel or some s**t I think his name is." Rep nodded to Carl. "I think people will be all right, Mark will help Gale and Sam out." He ******** hoped so since he'd just unleashed green hell on that whole ******** base not ten minutes ago.

"We should go get you looked over at the infirmary and get you into a shower. Do you feel okay?" he gave Lucky a suspicious look.

"Don't open it." he said. "No matter how ******** curious you get, your namesake can probably run out, it might be the day you open that thing."